Amazon Pay gets another Rs 300 crore from parent entity

Digital payments company Amazon Pay has received Rs 300 crore in fresh funding from its e-commerce parent entity Amazon, according to filings with the Register of Companies accessed by ET. The latest funds come after four previous capital infusions in 2018, amounting to Rs 1,250 crore.
The new investment comes in the wake of increased competition from homegrown rivals Paytm and PhonePe along with its American competitor Google whose payments product is growing majorly here.
Amazon which is the only American tech giant to have a PPI (prepaid payment instrument) licence from the Reserve Bank has been stepping up its wallet payments game over the last few months. The company is also running against time to complete the full KYC (Know Your Customer) of its user base in order to keep its wallet customers active. As per RBI directions, they should complete the full KYC of their user base within February 28.
ET wrote earlier this week that Amazon is testing its Unified Payments Interface based product in India in partnership with Axis Bank in a closed user group. The company’s plans to launch its own UPI handles got scuppered in the backdrop of the data localisation guideline of the central bank.
Amazon Pay’s closest rival PhonePe which is backed by Flipkart, another e-commerce major in the country had received Rs 452 crore from Flipkart Payments in August last year. Paytm, the largest digital payments instrument received funding to the tune of $300 million from Berkshire Hathway last year at a valuation of more than $10 billion.
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